


Apple Core, Who's Your Friend

by Wasthatapun



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: M/M, Shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-29
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-06 20:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasthatapun/pseuds/Wasthatapun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took them another few days after valentines to actually talk about just where everything stood, another two weeks after that they got up the courage to tell everyone else, and not much time at all for Peter to have a completely unrelated revelation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apple Core, Who's Your Friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Psilent (HereThereBeFic)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HereThereBeFic/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Apple Hearts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/711669) by [Psilent (HereThereBeFic)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HereThereBeFic/pseuds/Psilent). 



> A continuation/response to Apple Hearts

It took them another few days after valentines to actually talk about just where everything stood, another two weeks after **_that_** they got up the courage to tell everyone else.

They stood in the fourth sitting room on the first floor in the east wing as close as possible without actually holding hands.

Peter shifted uncomfortably, that fleeting and disturbing thought crossing his mind yet again that this wouldn’t end well. But he’d been wrong when he’d hired them and they hadn’t found him unnerving and ended up his friends, he’d been wrong when he’d accidentally blown his face off and they hadn’t been disgusted and had only been worried that he had gotten hurt, acclimating to his new visage almost faster than he was.

He hoped he was wrong now too.

After their ‘confession’ both boys held their breath. Steve stared at them in mild confusion before turning to Sam and asking “Wait they weren’t before?”

The Spine snorted.

Somewhere further off in the manor they heard a Whoop that could only be from Rabbit and a shout of “FINALLY” and all the tenseness Michael and Peter had felt since their little revelation melted away and suddenly everyone was laughing.

-

Somehow the whole suddenly having a boyfriend thing helped a lot with the whole suddenly not technically having a face thing and Peter found himself hiding away from the others less and less. A sort of rhythm set back in and with a few minor changes life went back to normal.

 Or as normal as Walter Manor ever got.

-

Michael had always been the more physically affectionate person of the two, which meant now that they were together it was usually him seeking Peter out for ‘further experimentation’ as he was prone to jokingly referring to it.

It became not at all uncommon for them to be caught snuggling, passed out on a couch or leaned against one another in the lab nuzzled together where they’d collapsed from overwork. This was usually met by a chuckle and a quiet exit or in one memorable case Sam very loudly announcing

“AAWW LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE!”

in a high pitched voice so they both jumped and ended up tumbling off the couch in a tangle of limbs and blanket as Sam laughed his ass off.

-

Figuring out kissing was

Interesting

At first they kept it to Michael giving Peter pecks on the mask but eventually curiosity won out regarding his ‘condition’ and whether or not there was a work around.

As far as they could figure Peter somehow both did and didn’t have a face all at once which was how he was still able to see and smell and eat and breath and if he wasn’t really thinking about it and didn’t look at his reflection or anything he could still reach up and feel various features like they were still there.

It could be a bit confusing when it came to their awkward but always enjoyable makeouts.

Michael eventually figured out that if he closed his eyes first he usually had an easier time hitting his mark than if he kept them open to be thrown off by the blue matter whorl that now made up his face.

It was during one of these ‘experiments’  that something clicked in Peters head and he nearly knocked Michael off the couch in his excitement as he snatched his mask off the table.

“Hey! I was kinda doing something!” Michael sputtered, more than a bit put out. But it didn’t last long as Peter gave a distracted apology, pulling him close again waving the mask in one hand and started excitedly explaining his sudden revelation. Michael couldn’t stay mad in the face (hah) of his open excitement to the point he didn’t even care he had his mask off.

While he was more comfortable with Michael as far as his appearance went he still didn’t much like having his mask off unless attention was anywhere but on him, which funnily enough usually meant it was on his lips or his neck lately.

Amid the flood of technical jargon and theoretical conjecture that Michael was only slightly confused by he did find one thing that he really didn’t follow.

“Wait, what’s a Hatchworth?”

Peter fell silent instantly, blinking at Michael thought he’d never know it, with the sudden self consciousness of someone who’s only just realized they’ve been babeling for the last twenty minutes without giving any context whatsoever.

“Oh, oops. Um. Hatchworth, he’s not a what he’s a who. Well I guess with current laws the stupid way they are he’s technically counted as a what being a walter bot and all but we both know that’s just dumb and –“

Michael cleared his throat bringing Peter back to the topic at hand.

“ - anyway, forever ago a fracture was found in his core. So he had to be put in – in this vault to protect everyone from all the blue matter leaking from his core and no one's been able to figure out how to fix it and I JUST FIGURED IT OUT!”

He stood, pulling Michael up with him, and marched right out of the quiet little study they’d been hiding in. Slipping his mask back on with one hand and dragging Michael along by the other who followed in muted amusement at his boyfriend’s excitement.

-

He didn’t say anything as they passed out of the ‘safe’ parts of the manor, he’d long sense outgrown those boundaries and the lab they most often used lay outside of it. He didn’t say anything as they left the upper floors, he’d been to the lower labs before too, dragged along when Peter V had wanted to show his son something interesting and Michael didn’t want him to miss out. He didn’t say anything as the halls got steadily more unfamiliar and ill kept, they’d explored before.

But as the air became thick with age, the floor damp, and the walls uneven he started to get a bit nervous. The odd noises creaking and groaning from the house above not helping matters in the slightest, the hissing made it worse.

“Peter?” Michael asked, cutting him off mid word “ ** _What_** is it we’re doing down here again?”

“I told you,” Peter didn’t stop or slow in his steady trek into the bowels of the manor “We’re gonna fix Hatchworth!”

-

It was tradition when a given Walter comes of age that certain information was passed on to them, a lot of it was information they’d probably never use like what to do if one of the bots were to go rogue, how exactly to get in contact with the Brown Suits, and the pass code for The Vault.

As it turned out one of those little factoids was going to come into use this generation, after over 7 decades the heavy lead door swung open with an echoing and slightly ominous creak.

“Ya know I think this might have at least a little to do with my dad’s thing about doors.” Peter wondered idly as they stood against the opposite wall of the hall and watched it open, still hand in hand, which Peter suddenly dropped.

A queer blue mist rolling out like fog, and Peter gave Michael a sidelong glance through his mask “You, uh, you probably should stay out here. It’s not exactly safe.”

“So ** _you’re_** gonna go in there?!”

Peter did the nervous shuffling thing he’d started doing where he played with the strap of his mask.

“It’s –um- It’s kinda not that dangerous for me. Anymore. Because of the – you know.” He made a general motion toward his face

Michael muttered an ‘oh’ and they looked away from each other awkwardly. Then Michael caught his hand again and pulled him forward to kiss him on his mask, about where his nose would be.

“Just be careful okay?”

Peter nodded and, straightening his shirt, strode into the vault.

-

The bronze bot sat reclined against the far wall, watching absently in the not-quite-dark as the blue matter that leaked constantly from his chest swirled and shifted before him. Periodically solidifying into hallucinations and phantoms that he’d long sense grown bored of.

He boredly watched the masked young man enter.

“Huh, you’re new.” He muttered.

Peter waved away a curl of blue matter mist.

“Hatchworth?”

He quirked a metal eyebrow.

“Oh fun the kind that talks.” He sighed a jet of blue tinged steam.

“No, it’s okay, I’m real I –“

Hatchworth had put his head down with a groan, clamping his hands over his audio receptors.

“Nope.”

“But I-”

“Noppeee”

“Hatchwo-“

“I SAID NO!” 

Peter stepped back as the automaton’s voice rang through the small space, hiding his face in his knee’s stubbornly. His foot caught on something that probably wasn’t actually real and cried out as he stumbled and fell flat on his ass.

This finally drew the automatons attention and a bewildered chuckle, no hallucination had been **_clumsy_** before.

“Oh now there are two. This really is an interesting day.” He muttered to himself

And Peter was surprised to feel himself being lifted from behind and an all too familiar voice breathing worriedly in his ear

“You okay Petey?”

Michael had done a good job of not going in the minute he heard the shout from inside the vault, not so much when he’d heard the second that was an all too familiar voice and charged in not really sure what he was planning on doing if something **_was_** wrong.

Hatchworth watched curiously as Peter whirled around and started berating Michael about how dangerous it was for him to be inside the vault, how he needed to go back out right this moment and Michael telling him no he felt fine and he’d heard Peter shout and he wasn’t going anywhere till he was sure he was alright.

With much creaking and scrapping of aged metal he leveraged himself to his feet, feeling unbelievably unsteady on them after so long without use (leaving the gyros completely off balance and therefore him too) he adjusted the dust covered and age cracked glasses on his metal nose and inspected them, as well as the open door beyond.

He’d of course fantasized about freedom many times before, about that heavy door opening and finally seeing the light of day again. And with the blue matter that filled the place those fantasies became a lot more realistic and tended to take on a life of their own

But,

He’d never hallucinated new people before. Always the blue matter would conjure up family or friends or even in some particularly hard stretches enemies, never new faces.

Which meant he was either hitting a new level of insanity,

Or ,

“You are real, aren’t you?” he asked the arguing pair in awe.

Michael smiles at him, hiding a small cough before cheerfully telling him

“Yep! Petey here thinks he knows how to fix you!”

Peter offered a small wave as the bot looked them both over with wide optics.

“Peter? Peter Walter?”

“The Sixth”

“Oh my,” his bronze face fell “I have been down here for quite some time now, haven’t I.”

Peter nodded, putting a hand on his shoulder “Yeah, but not anymore.”

“Why are you so sure you can fix me?”

“Well ya see –“ Michael starts, theatrically as another cough sneaks up on him and motioning to Peter who sighs and lifts the keyhole mask from his faceless blue matter void face.

“That’s also why I wasn’t too worried about coming in here.”  He rounded on Michael “Unlike you who needs to GET THE HELL OUT RIGHT NOW!”

Michael waved him off, catching his hand and suppressing another cough “I’m fine, I can wait the six extra seconds till we **_all_** leave.”

Peter sighed in resignation, Michael could be unbelievably stubborn and loath as he was to admit it it was one of the things Peter loved about him.

-

It took slightly over two hours for the pair to do a quick patch on the fracture, one that only needed to hold long enough to get him to one of the labs. Michaels cough continued to worsen but he’d shush Peter or Hatchworth anytime they expressed worry. Going so far as to yank Peter’s mask off to kiss him full on the mouth when he started ranting about safety and stupid risks, the action leaving peter with no idea what he’d just been saying and giving Hatchworth a good laugh.

“It is funny, but Mrs. Iris would do the same thing!” He chuckled.

-

Another 68 hours of work, four more arguments, one sudden revelation that hey humans need food, and quite a bit of worry over Michael who waved off each new symptom.

“Reality warping core crack first, me later.”

Finally- **_finally-_** they finished and Hatchworth gave a sigh of relief , steam no longer tinged blue, as he regarded the seam left over the fracture. 

“I can never thank you enough for this, I fear I had lost hope that I would ever -”

He cut himself off as he looked up with a chuckle.

Peter had passed out on a conveniently placed couch, Michael sprawled on top of him nuzzling into the other boys shirt and muttering in his sleep, with one of Peters arms draped over his back.

A bit of digging and he was able to track down a suitable not-chemical-stained blanket for them and settled down on a stool to wait for them to wake.

Michael coughed and Hatchworth frowned when he noted a bit of blue whorl from his lips, making a note to bring it up later.

-

There was a **_lot_** of shouting.

Most of it was joyful, a good deal of it coming from Rabbit and The Spine and The Jon at the sudden and completely unexpected appearance of their long missed brother, but a fair bit got aimed at Peter and Michael in the form of a lecture about safety and how stupid it was to just go and **_do_** something like this without even telling anyone and were Michael’s eyes **_glowing?!_**

While Hatchworth was dragged off to celebrate Peter and Michael were marched right back to the closest Lab at hand for tests and further lecturing.

Peter was, just as he thought, completely unaffected by the extra blue matter exposure. It seemed he’d been affected by the stuff about all he was going to be.

On the other hand Michael’s eyes were indeed glowing, and with each new test the eyeless mans expression grew slightly more serious and Michael scooched the tiniest bit on the workbench 'til he was practically sitting in Peter’s lap.

“You’re not going to die so stop looking at me like that.”

Peter V finally said and Michael let out a blue tinged sigh.

“Congratulations, you’ve somehow done the same thing to yourself as my son, minus a lot of explosions.”

He didn’t seem especially amused.

Peter VI glared at him through his mask “I **_told_** you to stay outside.”

Michael offered only a quiet “Woops”

“So what do we do?”

Peter V shrugged as he started to put away his tools.  “Right now? There’s really nothing we can do. You're stable as you are so it’ll just be research and testing and for the time being.  We just hope no extraordinary side effects pop up.”

“So we’re free to go?” Peter VI asked hopefully

“You’re free to go, I think the guys have started a full on party to welcome Hatchworth back.”

Peter VI grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him out of the room.

A few halls later and he stopped, spinning around to face Michael and inspect him through the wooden mask.

“You okay?”

“Yeah I think so.”

“You shoulda listened to me.”

“I know, sorry.”

Peter made an aggravated sound and crossed his arms in a pout.

“Your eyes glow.”

“. . .Yeah.”

“I lost. My. Face. And your EYES GLOW.”

“Sorry.”

Peter held it for a half a minute longer before collapsing into laughter, he was honestly relieved.

He moved closer, drawing Michael in who lifted the mask and didn’t flinch the tiniest bit at the sight of his swirling void of a face.

Peter’s heart fluttered in that way it always did and wrapped his arms around Michael’s neck as Michael closed his eyes to press a kiss against his lips.

Reality seemed to waver around them and when they finally pulled away Michael’s blue matter glowing eyes were even brighter, and the statue on the hall table had become a pot of petunias.

They both stared at it in surprise.

“Gonna have to keep an eye on that.”

Peter muttered, Michael nodding absently before giving him another peck and pulling him along.

“But first, cake.”

 


End file.
